The present invention concerns a filter element, in particular a cabin air filter for filtering air for the cabin of a motor vehicle or building. Moreover, the invention concerns a filter assembly with such a filter element and with a filter receptacle.
Even though applicable to any type of filter element and filter assembly, the present invention as well as the underlying problems will be described in the following for a cabin air filter of a motor vehicle.
Increasing air pollution, in particular in metropolitan areas, in combination with the use of modern air-conditioning devices makes it necessary to purify by means of suitable filters the air that is guided from the exterior into the cabin of a motor vehicle and is processed or air-conditioned. For this purpose, for example, particle filters, odor filters or their combinations with each other are conceivable that are to filter out or absorb as much as possible the suspended solids, particles or odors contained in the ambient air. For filtration of air for the cabin of a motor vehicle, folded or pleated filter materials, for example, filter nonwovens that form a fold pack, are often employed. For this purpose, first a flat filter material sheet is folded in a zigzag shape. The fold pack is secured by side strips and head strips or another type of frame. Such filter elements can be fixed exchangeably in a filter receptacle. The thus produced filter assembly can be installed in an air conditioning device of an appropriate motor vehicle. An object of the present invention resides in providing an improved filter element. The improved filter element is to be characterized by a simple installation in and removal from a corresponding filter receptacle.